This is a very special gluten and dairy free fish recipe as dumplings are traditionally made with flour and therefore out of bounds for people with gluten intolerance. In this dish, rice noodles are cooked in fish stock along with dumplings filled with shrimp that are like little flavourful taste-nuggets in this warming Chinese soup. The dumplings can be made with rice flour for people with gluten sensitivity as in the photo. Obviously if you like dumplings and don’t have a gluten intolerance you can use regular flour too. For a vegetarian version of this soup, substitute the shrimp with another vegetable such as sweetcorn or finely chopped, steamed carrots.

Serves 4 – preparation time: 30 minutes cooking time: 5 minutes

Ingredients: Dumpling dough:

5.3 oz / 150 g rice flour (or regular flour)
1 tsp xanthan gum (only required when using rice flour)
1.7 fl oz / 50 ml boiling water
7 tbs cold water (slightly less if using regular flour)
1 1/2 tsp cold pressed rapeseed oil

Ingredients: Dumpling filling:

9 oz / 250 g cooked shrimp, chopped
1.7 oz / 50 g water chestnuts, drained, chopped into small pieces
1 celery stick, finely chopped into cubes
1 tbs hoi-sin sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp corn flour

Ingredients: Soup:

20 fl oz / 800 ml of fish stock (or 2 tbs fish sauce, soy sauce and water)
1 tbs rice wine or dry sherry
1.7 oz / 50 g rice noodles
1 scallion, finely sliced to garnish

Mix the rice four with the xanthan gum and then the remaining ingredients for the dumpling dough in a bowl. continue to kneed it on a work surface until you are left with a pliable dough. Add tbs of water if necessary.
Divide the dough into 16 small, equal pieces.
Roll the dough out into rounds of approx. 8 cm (3 inches) diameter.
In a bowl mix the ingredients for the filling.
Spoon about a tbs of the filling mix onto a round of dough and fold the dough to form a dumpling sealing the dough together at the top. Repeat to make the rest of the dumplings.
Bring the fish stock to the boil, add the noodles, dumplings and rice wine. Bring back to the boil and let the soup simmer for 5 minutes until the noodles and dumplings are cooked.
Ladle the soup and dumplings into warmed bowls, garnish with the chopped scallion and serve.